Lal
Thanhawla had promised during campaign season that the NLUP, halted by
the ECI due to complaints by opposition parties, would be continued
immediately.

Aizawl, Dec 13 : With the Congress set to form a government for the second consecutive
term, the Mizoram government is wasting no time in continuing it's
flagship beneficiary scheme beginning with a high-level meeting on
Friday to decide on land-use conversion and teams scheduled to visit
sites earmarked for infrastructure projects.
The NLUP implementing board is scheduled to have a meeting headed
by Chief Secretary on Friday, a day before state Congress president Lal
Thanhawla is set to be sworn in as CM for the fifth time.

Lal Thanhawla had promised during campaign season that the NLUP,
halted by the ECI due to complaints by opposition parties, would be
continued immediately after the elections were over. He had already told
officials to continue the scheme as soon as possible even before
counting day and results of the elections were known.

The high-level Friday meeting has been called, among others, to
discuss the conversion of agricultural plots for industrial use at
Kawnpui town, where two processing units for ginger and turmeric are
being planned. Mizoram's new land law requires a case-by-case clearance
for such land-use conversion.

With Mizoram's economy largely agrarian, the New Land Use Policy
is a scheme under which families with no member as government employee
are given money in installments through direct transfers to their bank
accounts, which they use to enhance their livelihoods by using this to
fund any of several trades they choose.

These optional trades include the production of several crops, small industries or even small private businesses.

While much of the money has already been disbursed, albeit
installments still pending, the main thrust of the policy now is the
marketing of the produce that has begun to accumulate or started from
the labour already done by beneficiaries since the scheme began it's
cash distribution component in 2010, and under which 1.2 lakh families
have been covered.

The ginger and turmeric processing units mentioned earlier are
also meant to convert the raw produce into readily marketable produce.
Besides the two units mentioned, three teams are to visit various places
within two weeks from now to survey locations for the setting up of
collection centres of farm produce.

Retired Wing Commander Lalnghinglova, chairman of the NLUP
Implementing Board's marketing cell, said the marketing component of the
scheme is the main part of work left now that much of the funds have
already been dispersed or are soon to be disbursed.

"We have no problem with buyers for these produce. There are
various parties from Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati who
are already roped in after they evinced interest. It is getting these
produce to the market that is the main task ahead, said Lalnghinglova.

He added most of the processing units will be for easily
perishable items, while regulated markets would be built at various
points to sell others. The collection centres would facilitate the
movement from farms to intermediate locations, and then to these
markets.